The Stolen Picture
by Pine Tree Horizon
Summary: Sarah is a frame of shame in Rose's eyes. Did she steal her drawing? Saffron and Indigo suspect the sticky hands of a certain gang leader to be behind this mishap.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The characters of the Casson Family series belongs to Hillary McKay**

Chapter One: Who Dares Target Rose Casson?

As usual, Rose Casson was the directory of the household and pounced on the telephone. The looping of rings ceased in her ears and a stone-serious expression lay painted on her face. She said, "Hello. Is this Daddy?"

"No Rose."

"Well, figured it wasn't going to be Tom either."

"Rose," The female voice protested, urgently. "I need saffron, now!"

"Maybe I will fetch her, maybe I won't," She answered in a buttery cold tone. "Besides, I knew it was you by your lack of patience."

"You obnoxious little..." She cracked up into a barrel of laughter. Rose couldn't make out the rest of her sentence. "Never mind, forget what I just said. My mother will ground me for life if she found out I called you that."

Rose pretended to brush off the remark ad stared the phone down with steel irritation.

"Why?" Rose spat, obviously not fond of the joke.

"It is because I need help with my homework. I need to borrow her brain."

"Use your own, or borrow your extra computer," Rose flattened out her speech.

"Saffy's would facilitate mine," She scoffed. "And Indigo has a genuine thing for science. If you ask him, I bet he'll help me."

"Look, missy," Rose choked the spiral phone cord. "Sarah grew pale and speechless."I am furious with you. My darling siblings will never ever, ever again in this entire lifetime be used by you, you…"

"Rose, darling! Where in the world are you?" Eve called from down the hallway in the kitchen.

"Rosy, pose!" indigo called, rolling his eyes. "Want to help me make ravioli stew?"

She stuck out her tongue in disgust. Regretting the action instantly, she covered her mouth. She wouldn't reveal her anger to her family, unless she was indeed, at the boiling point of rage. "Indy," She replied, "Anything more luxurious and ordinary?"

Typical Indigo Casson suggested another bizarre recipe stirred from his imagination to cheer her up into delight. His pack, his siblings, stood in line first at the tip of his heart.

"French soba?" he surveyed her.

"Indy, soba is Japanese!"

"I know, but have you ever tried soba with cheese? I heard a rumor that cheese is a traditional course of meal in France."

"No."

"Carrot sticks with yam rice cakes in apple sauce?"

Before Rose could come up with another excuse, someone rapped on the door loudly. Saffron sprinted to the peephole.

"Caddys' home," She announced. "She bought groceries. I bet she begged Michael to take her to the market." Sad thing Cadminium Cason only drew controllably left, not right. There, she was daft in abstracts of insanity.

"It's about time we have something other than lentils around here," Rose murmured, relieved. No one heard her. She forgot about her argument with Sarah, who rambled on and on things she felt were excuses, and slammed down the receiver. As the five Cassons crowded around the kitchen table, one chair stood on its side like a lonely shrub of misery against the wall.

Eve's eyes exploded as she analyzed the four paper bags of noisy products jumbling about inside each one. "Oh, what a load that is, Caddy darling! Oh, Rose darling, who was that you were talking to on the phone?"

Caddy waited before rose to comment, who struggled to form the sentence together. "Saffron. Sarah. Wants. To. Speak. To. You." She could not control the blood steaming sweat in her ears and trickling down her neck. Two fists grounded the tabled and four sets of eyes shot her way.

"She stole my drawing!"

"Oh Rose," Saffron assured her. "She'd never, trust me."

"She would!"

"No Rose, not from you."

Indigo brought up the time her first teacher pinned a prized drawing of hers on her classroom wall, queerly, and on purpose. Indigo retrieved it for her that day, safe from further confiscation.

"Where did you draw it?" indigo asked, digging deeper for hints.

"On my way to school with you, Saffron, and Sarah. Caddy was out with Michael at the time, five to seven exactly, and Eve was in the painting shed. Bill was still being naughty in London." She's never seemed to forgive him for lying every time he called. "Later, Sarah asked to see the picture that accidentally fell out of my notebook, which was stuffed and messy. She was drooling with envy, I could smell it!"

"But she did not take it," Saffron stated. "Did you store your notebooks in an open cubby at school or did it slip under the seats on the bus ride home?"

Rose glared and shook her head vigorously.

"Sarah took it; I saw her tying her shoe in front of my cubby. She acted if her wheelchair stuck a crack and stuffed it right into her bag."

"It sounds to me like your taking my words and twisting them into your own," Saffron replied. "That does not prove much."

Eve tried. "Rose darling, sleep a night over it, you are acting so uptight over little things."

"I know, Mother darling!"

Now Caddy hesitated with her unpacking of soup cans and vegetable platters.

"Rose darling, have you even asked your teacher?"

"She doesn't even know my combination lock number. I still do not trust her though since the last incident," Rose explained.

"Fine Rose, I will call Sarah later," Saffron refused to gave in, still positive that someone else was hung responsible for this situation. To Rose, as most people understood, drawing was her life, her skill. If anyone took that away from her, they took away her dignity… and class.

Indigo, a boy of many mutual secrets and a victim of a school gang, concentrated on analyzing the given facts swirling around in his noggin.

"Rose, do you know anyone that I might recognize who uses the cubbies next to yours?" he asked.

"Some nerdy boy with orange-red spectacles and a book always tucked at his side," Rose listed the details.

Indigo ran cold. Rose and Saffron exchanged expressions of concern.

"The gang leader must have dared him to prank my little sister. Oh man…" he muttered.

"See Rose?" Saffron protested and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, Indigo, Sarah and I will cover for you again. No one attacks a Casson as long as they are taught a lesson."

"As long as no one is badly injured," Indigo included, slapping a package of goat cheese on the table. "Now, who is hungry?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Pardon, your pants are on fire, liar.

Sarah called once again later that night. When it was Eve who picked up, she sighed. Eve was someone who would worry away about her having bushels of homework that kept her up past midnight.

"Darling, poor thing, get some rest," she said, unaware of paint smearing down her cheek and rubbing off onto the phone itself.

"Mrs. Casson, please," She ushered. "I bet she's still awake anyhow."

"Sleep is important."

"It's only eight-forty-five," Sarah admitted, clarifying a point. "Besides, I am not delirious or drowsy or cranky in any way."

"Mom," A quiet voice from behind Eve startles her, and she spun around, shaky and still as glass.

"Indigo darling!"

"Mom, was that Sarah?"

She chugged the phone into his hand and left him speaking into the receiver.

"Hello, Sarah. Saffron is busy. Pelt me with questions as long as it's not about physics."

"Splendid! Thank you, Indigo. You're a real sweet boy. I know everything that covers inertia, particles, heat, matter, space, chemicals and existence anyway. I need information on Aristotle."

"Okay, he was a philosopher born in around 284 B.C. to 323 B.C. He was raised in Stagier Macedonia to a physician. In the year 366, he moved to Athens, Greece at the age of eighteen and attended Plato's Academy. He was referred to as"Nous" or a "brilliant mind" in Greek. Don't believe Caddy if she ever tells you he was an astronaut."

She chuckled. Her pencil became alive and chipped fifteen seconds later. "Hold on, slow down. I need to sharpen my pencil-again."

Indigo paused. The other end of the line grew silent, fading with departure sounds of wheels. Momentarily, she returned after several tries at forming a sharp pointed tip. "Stubborn sharpener. Continue, please."

" Aristotle purchased a group of buildings, lands, andgardens valuble to the eye, and there established a school of higher education in philosophy…he was one of the only highly influenced in science in that overall time period."

"Thanks a billion, Indigo Don't worry; it's not a study exam."

"Good," Indigo yawned. "Then what was it intended for?"

"Not was, it is for interest."

"You," he was mind struck, "are interested in philosophy?"

"Sh, do not tell."

"You told Rose you needed help with your homework, Indigo reminded her."

"I lied."

"What's wrong with being a geek anyway? Be one. Shakespeare said 'to be or not to be', I say destiny is dignity," he advised. "We should really head to bed now. Good luck with those dreams there, Sarah," Somewhere inside, Indigo wondered exactly why she would solemnly promise not to let her best friend know this. "Do you still want to speak to Saffron? She was going to call."

"Not to be rude, I love you all, but I wanted to talk with you. That plan worked. Night, Indigo."

"Good night. See you tomorrow during breakfast."

"I will make sure that I will."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Nutrition and Ephemeral Intermission.

Saffron woke up with a sharp pain slithering in her ribcage. She caught herself before being forcefully yanked out of bed by the wrists. Rose excitedly pounced onto her again.

"I love you, Saffron! I love you, I love you, I love you! You are my cousin and half sister and I love you!"

Saffron, who could sense what was coming at her, rubbed the sleep red from her eyes. Bare feet tackled the cold floor of her small bedroom. The door was swung wide open.

"What do you want?" she asked, trying to hide her Monday morning crankiness.

"My drawing, my drawing, you silly darling! Did you forget?" Now Rose was eagerly hoping from one foot to the other. She held a nutrition bar in her right hand.

"Of course not. Don't worry. Let me get ready and meet me downstairs before we're late for school."

"Yes." Rose somersaulted across the floor and sauntered down the creaky narrow staircase. "I perceive a wheelchair by the sidewalk!"

"Rose, darling, eat something," Eve called from the kitchen.

"I'm holding the bar you forced me to eat," She responded, pouting a little. Swinging the door open with a bounce off the wall, Rose helped Sarah up the stoop.

"I forgave you since midnight," Rose announced.

"Well, thank you Rose." Sarah grinned. "Besides, I had felt this sticky sensation that the leader of that gang was trying to pin down Indigo by targeting you."

"Correct. You and Saffron will teach him."

"True," She agreed, and followed her into the kitchen. "I've stormed up some plans already. Saffron! Indigo!" A reaction of rapid footsteps doubled down the staircase.

"We're ready," Indigo insisted.

"Eat, Indy, and stay away from the gang today as you try," Rose explained, proud of her brother. She handed Indigo and Saffron each a nutrition bar.

"Hungry?" She asked Sarah, flicking a bar into her lap.

"Sure, why not. I trust you enough this does not have poison, am I correct?"

"One-hundred percent," Rose replied dimples popping her cheekbones.

"Let's go. She gestured toward the front door. We'll be late."

"Good bye darlings," Eve kisses Rose, Indigo, and Saffron each in the forehead. "It's drizzling out there, boulders. Turn up your hoods."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Embarrassment makes the Bullies Cry

The grass flooded with dew and soaked the sidewalk grey. The ginger haired gang leader groaned as his sneakers plunged into hidden puddles, cold as ice. He scowled back at his younger brother, who was taking his time walk around every one of the thousand puddles.

"Hurry up, retard! It's damp, cold, and the first bell will ring any minute now," He warned.

"Don't call me that. I can't help what I have."

"Having what? Aspersers syndrome?" He faked a grunt to hide a snicker.

"Don't laugh, I'm sensitive," Hs brother piped up.

"Yeah, emotionally and physically sensitive is what you are. Get out of the puddles and walk on the grass if you have to."

"Then I'll bump into people and the world will blow up in our faces, won't it?"

"You're a coward."

"You should pay attention to the rules," he answered, finally aligned with his brothers' pace.

He turned a corner and told him to go inside. "We're here. I have business to take care of." Unfortunately it would have helped if his brother knew; that would save the Cassons'. Before the door shut hard in his face, the only words that escaped was, "I can't believe you stole from someone three years younger than you, and three years wiser than you.'

Little did the gang leader know enough to pay attention to the tug at the back of his sneaker. Then another nudge forced his knees to buckle foreword. He glanced back, motivated. The same "freak in a wheelchair" and her sidekick stood face to face with him once again.

"Fork that drawing over, you thief," Sarah commanded. Saffron locked his wrists together and placed her foot in a ready position to kick the back of his shins, if necessary. He squirmed.

"It's in my pack, you freaks!"

Saffron reached with one hand, unzipped his pack in a flash, and yanked the whole mess off his scrawny shoulders. Paper and pencils flew everywhere. He groaned some more as ink smudged in the rain. She flipped intently through his English notebook and plucked out a 4' by 4' picture of Tom from the United States. She shoved the open pack back at the guilty thief and ran off, wheeling Sarah along with her. They howled with ironic laughter. The joke was on him now. Rose would recover with her own original artistic dignity.

But why lay there a picture of Tom in the backpack of the redhead gang leader?


End file.
